Augustine, Sermones 113-120 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

he was giving. I thank Thee, O God, that I am not as other men. I thank Thee, O God: he gives thanks to God that he is not as other men; and yet he is rebuked as proud and puffed up; not because he was giving thanks to God, but because he desired, as it were, that nothing be added to him. I thank Thee that I am not as other men, unjust. So you are just; so you ask for nothing; so you are already full; so the life of man upon earth is not a temptation (Job 7:1); so you are already full; so you already abound; so there is now no reason for you to say, Forgive us our debts (Matt. 6:12). What then of him who impiously assails grace, if he is rebuked who gives thanks proudly?

Chapter IV. — 4. The baptism of Christ is necessary for little ones. And behold, after the dispute has been stated and the sentence pronounced, the little ones also come forward, or rather they are carried in and presented to be touched. To be touched by whom, if not by the physician? Surely, you who are sound [of mind]: to whom are infants presented to be touched? To whom? To the Saviour. If to the Saviour, then certainly to be saved. To whom, if not to Him Who came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)? Where had these been lost? As far as concerns themselves properly, I see them innocent; I look for the guilt. Whence is it? I hear the Apostle: By one man sin entered into the whole earth. By one man, he says, sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and so it passed through into all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12). Let the little ones come then, let them come: let the Lord be heard, Suffer the little ones to come to Me (Luke 18:16). Let the little ones come, the sick to the physician; let the lost come to the Redeemer: let them come, let no one forbid them. In the branch they have as yet committed nothing; but in the root they perished. May the Lord bless the small with the great: let the physician touch both the small and the great. We commend the cause of the little ones to the elders. Speak for those who are silent, pray for those who weep. If you are not elders in vain, be guardians: protect those who cannot yet plead their own cause. The perdition was common, let the finding be common: together we had perished, together let us be found in Christ. The merit is unequal, but the grace is common. They have nothing of evil except what they drew from the spring; they have nothing of evil except what they drew from their origin. Let those who have added much to what they drew not hinder them from salvation. He who is greater in age is greater also in iniquity. But the grace of God blots out what you drew, blots out also what you added. For where sin abounded, grace superabounded (Rom. 5:20).

Sermon 116. On the words of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace be to you, etc. (Luke 24:36–47).

Chapter I. — 1. The heresy of the Manichaeans. The Lord appeared after the resurrection to His disciples, as you have heard, and greeted them, saying, Peace be to you. This is peace, and the greeting of salvation: for greeting (salutatio) itself took its name from salvation (salus). But what could be better than that Salvation itself should greet man? For our Salvation is Christ. For He Himself is our salvation, Who was wounded for us, and was fastened with nails to the wood; and, taken down from

the wood, laid in the tomb. But from the tomb He rose again, His wounds healed, His scars kept. For He judged it expedient for His disciples that His scars should be kept, so that by them the wounds of the heart might be healed. What wounds? The wounds of unbelief. For He appeared to their eyes showing true flesh: and they thought that they were seeing a spirit. This is no light wound of the heart. In fact, those who remained in this wound made a malignant heresy. But do we not think that the disciples were wounded, because they were quickly healed? Let your Charity consider: if they had remained in that wound, so as to think that the buried body had not risen again, but that a spirit had deceived human eyes with the likeness of a body; if they had remained in that faith, nay rather in that faithlessness, it would not be their wounds but their death that ought to be mourned.

Chapter II. — 2. The doubting of the disciples. But what does the Lord Jesus say? Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts rise up into your heart? If thoughts rise up into your heart, the thoughts come from the earth. It is good for a man, not that a thought should rise up into his heart, but that his heart itself should rise upwards: where the Apostle wished to place the hearts of believers, to whom he said, If you have risen together with Christ, savour the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not those upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: when Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:1–4). In what glory? That of the resurrection. In what glory? Hear the Apostle saying of this body, It is sown in dishonour, it will rise in glory (1 Cor. 15:43). This glory the apostles were unwilling to grant to their Master, their Christ, their Lord: they did not believe that He had been able to raise His body from the tomb; they thought Him a spirit, and yet they saw flesh, and they did not trust their own eyes. And we believe them, though they announce and do not show. Behold, they did not believe Christ Himself when He showed Himself. An evil wound: let the medicines of the scars come forth. Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts rise up into your heart? See My hands and My feet, where I was fastened with nails. Handle and see. But you see, and you do not see. Handle and see. Why? Because a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have. Saying this (so it was read) He showed them His hands and feet.

Chapter III. — 3. How faith in the resurrection of Christ was urged upon them. — And while they were still trembling and wondering for joy. Now there was joy, and still the trembling remained. For an incredible thing had been done, but nevertheless done. Is it now incredible that the flesh of the Lord rose from the tomb? The whole world has believed this: whoever has not believed has remained unclean. Yet then it was incredible: and it was urged upon them not only by their eyes but also by their hands, so that through the sense of the body faith might descend into the heart, and faith, descending into the heart, might be preached throughout the world to those not seeing or touching, and yet believing without doubt. Have you here, He said, anything to be eaten? How much does the good builder add to the edifice of faith? He was not hungry,

and yet He sought to eat. And He ate by power, not by necessity. Let the disciples therefore acknowledge the true body, which the world acknowledged while they themselves were preaching.

Chapter IV. — 4. Against the Manichaeans. If perhaps there are some heretics who still hold in their heart that Christ displayed Himself to the eyes, and that it was not the true flesh of Christ, let them now lay that aside; let the Gospel persuade them. We rebuke them because they think this; He will condemn them if they persist in thinking this. Who are you, who do not believe that the body laid in the tomb could have risen again? If you are a Manichaean? you who do not believe that He was crucified, because you do not believe that He was born either; you proclaim that He showed everything falsely. He showed false things, and you speak what is true? You do not lie with your mouth, but He lied with His body? Behold, you suppose that what did not exist appeared to the eyes; that it was a spirit, not flesh. Hear Him: He loves you, so that He may not condemn you. Hear Him speaking: behold, He says to you, unhappy one; to you He speaks: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts rise up into your heart? See, He says, My hands and My feet. Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have. This the Truth was saying, and was He deceiving? It was a body, it was flesh; what had been buried was appearing. Let doubt perish; let fitting praise follow.

5. Christ inspires faith. He showed, therefore, Himself to the disciples. What is "Himself"? The Head of His Church. The Church that was to be throughout the world was foreseen by Him, was not yet seen by the disciples. He was showing the Head, He was promising the body. For what did He add next? These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. What is this, while I was still with you? Was He not with them then, was He not speaking with them? What is, while I was still with you? With you as a mortal, which I now am not. I was with you when I was going to die. What is, with you? Going to die with those who were going to die. Now no longer with you: because with those who are going to die I shall never again be going to die. This, then, I was saying to you. What?

Chapter V. — That all things had to be fulfilled which are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me. I told you that all things had to be fulfilled. Then He opened their understanding. Come then, Lord, make keys, open, that we may understand. Behold, Thou sayest all things, and Thou art not believed. Thou art thought to be a spirit; Thou art touched, Thou art handled, and still those who touch Thee tremble. Thou admonishest from the Scriptures, and still they do not understand. The hearts are shut: open, and enter. He did it: Then He opened their understanding. Open, Lord, and open the heart of him who doubts concerning Christ. Open the understanding of him who believes that Christ was a phantom. Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.

6. The Church is promised as one that will be throughout all nations. Christ is seen by the apostles, the Church by us. — And He said to them. What? Because thus it was necessary. Because thus it is written, and thus it was necessary. What? That Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day. They saw this; they saw Him suffering, they saw Him hanging, they were seeing Him after the resurrection present, living. What then were they not seeing? The body, that is, the Church. Him they were seeing, her they were not seeing. The Bridegroom they were seeing; the bride still

was hidden. Let Him promise her too. Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day. This is the bridegroom.

Chapter VI. — What about the bride? And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. This the disciples did not yet see: the Church through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, they did not yet see. The head they saw, and concerning the body they believed the head. Through what they saw, they believed what they did not see. We too are like them: we see something which they did not see, and we do not see something which they saw. What do we see which they did not see? The Church through all nations. What do we not see which they saw? Christ set in the flesh. Just as they saw Him and believed concerning the body, so let us, who see the body, believe concerning the head. Let the things we have seen help us mutually. Christ seen helped them to believe in the future Church; the Church seen helps us to believe that Christ has risen. Their faith was fulfilled, and ours too is being fulfilled: theirs was fulfilled concerning the head, ours is being fulfilled concerning the body. The whole Christ was made known both to them and to us; but neither was the whole seen by them, nor is the whole seen by us. By them the head was seen, the body believed; by us the body is seen, the head believed. Yet Christ is lacking to no one: in all He is full, and still the body remains to Him. They themselves believed; through them many of Jerusalem believed; Judaea believed, Samaria believed. Let the members come to it, let the building come to the foundation. For no one can lay a foundation, says the Apostle, except that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3:11). Let the Jews rage, let them be filled with zeal; let Stephen be stoned, let Saul keep the garments of those stoning him, Saul the future Paul the apostle. Let Stephen be killed, let the Church of Jerusalem be thrown into disorder (Acts 7:57; [8]:1): let the burning logs go away from there, let them come close and set things alight. For the logs in the Church of Jerusalem were in a certain manner burning with the Holy Spirit, when they had one soul and one heart towards God (ibid. 4:32). When Stephen had been stoned, that heap suffered persecution: the logs were scattered, and the world was set on fire.

Chapter VII. — 7. Saul changed into a preacher of the Gospel. Then, following these things, that raging Saul received letters from the chief priests, and began to go about in a fury, panting for slaughter, thirsting for blood, to drag in chains whomever he could from wherever he could, to hurry them off to punishment, to sate himself with blood poured out. But where is God, where is Christ, where is the One Who crowned Stephen? Where, if not in heaven? Let Him see Saul too, let Him laugh at the raging man, let Him cry from heaven, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? I am in heaven, you are on earth; and yet you persecute Me. You do not touch the head, but you trample on My members. But what are you doing? What are you achieving? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. However many kicks you aim, you harm yourself. So put away your fury, take up soundness of mind. Put away your evil counsel, seek good help. By that voice he was laid low. Who was laid low? The persecutor. See, he was conquered by one voice. Why were you going? Why were you raging? Those whom you were seeking,